March 23, 2009

my goodness it was bloody windy today! had a rambling kind of day, with vague destinations in mind :

started out in covent garden at monmouth coffee and wandered about a bit through familiar streets (neal st in particular).

on to the national gallery - note to ellie : i saw lady grey, surrounded by school children. she's very luminous - note to josh : also saw the tiger by rousseau that caused much consternation, don't know if you remember but it has stuck firmly in my mind.

then on up to soho to have another coffee (i know. i needed to sit though.). i went to milkbar (i found it! i always get tangled in soho but it's right near the fancy nando's!) and ran into a regular from work. his name is matt and he's from sydney and he and his girlfriend are going to take me under their wing a bit (they're a bit older but with similar design-y, music-y, coffee-y sentiments). he's given me the beginnings of a list for london and has promised one for paris (to add to my own of course).

then over to mayfair to check out new stuff at dover street (speedos are coming in next week!) and down savile row to stalk a bit... not really. i do like walking down there though.

but, alas, the weather got the better of me and i wasn't prepared so i came home again to a broken lock (thanks to my brilliant flatmate... long story, he's such a knob) and some internet!

planning for easter brunch (i think ellie's been at it since boxing day). found a miracle cake (gluten-free and vegan and tasty-looking) in the guardian on saturday, care of hugh fearnley-whittingstall. i'll also make a fruit taboulleh with quinoa from my rose bakery book. starting to feel like i should be in yallingup but hopefully this will be equally good!

cathedral. kind of geeked-out a little. half of it constructed from roman bricks from the ancient city and it morphs and changes into gothic (crazy british gothic). you can map the progress. it's wonderful.

March 10, 2009

March 7, 2009

finally, a day off that was sunny (though still chilly), and fun and hilarious. i spent it with soph but started here at leila's. doesn't look like much but is one of my favourite places; they sell fresh produce, sausages, couverture chocolate and many picnic-y type things. big plans for summer fun.

and then we kind of accidentally ended up at this madonna exhibition. it was so funny. all of the stuff (costumes, magazines, albums, barbies, merchandise etc etc) came from a private collection and it was really quite incredible that one person could incite such fervour (and one person would spend so much buying into that).

the costumes from evita were beautiful. though the curation and the venue left a little to be desired.

the guy in the background was taking a picture of himself with a picture of madonna...

then on to rochelle's canteen for luncheon.

it's in an art school and is only open for three hours every weekday. food was delicious, service fantastic and the light is simply amazing. i'm coming back as often as possible.

oh, this is my garden. it's shared between the row houses all down my street.

and my backdoor.

a familiar sight. i'd hate to say i've found a replacement for 78s but i've certainly found a substitute in rough trade. they may have exclusive mix cds and live recordings that you get free with some records, but they don't have a crew like grumpy, froggy, (formerly)bandana guy and smiley (though he's been awol for a couple of years now).

March 3, 2009

this is tabea, she's german. she's also a cellist and a barista that i work with. she's playing in a competition this weekend and needed to practice playing in front of an audience so we had a mini-recital after work on monday. she's playing a couple of movements from bach's 'six suites for cello in c minor'. not dissimilar to sonatas and partitas for violin (of tognetti fame) - incredibly beautiful and almost mournful. she's very funny though. she has a very precise way of speaking that i find myself adopting now and then. i taught her the word slag today. she found it hilarious.

March 1, 2009

i went out this morning, through the scrum that is brick lane on a sunday, down to cheshire st to a little shop called labour and wait, with the specific purpose of buying myself a stove-top coffee pot. i'm granted one free bag of coffee a week from work so i thought i better have means to put said beans to use.